I've got some good and some possibly not so good news.
As most of you already know, I have been looking for new payment processor for quite some time, but it seems like thanks to Nachen I have finally found a perfect payment processor - SWREG.org. They can process credit cards, EFT, wire and even PayPal. The only problem with them is that they have not so usual integration system, so I am going to have to recode very big part of Iono and that also means that I will remove MoneyBookers and E-Gold from payment options. I can probably still take payments via MoneyBookers and E-Gold after that change, but those payments will be processed manually.
And there is also not so good change for EU customers, SWREG will have to charge you VAT. I didn't have to do that before because onArcade is small business and according to Estonian laws companies with small turnover don't have to charge VAT, but SWREG works a bit differently, so they will have to charge VAT.
I hope to integrate SWREG within the next few days because I have been losing lots of sales during the past few months due to no credit card processing method and I want to end this ASAP.

There is one more change that I hope to impose ASAP - currently onArcade pricing isn't very sustainable. At the moment you pay only one time fee of €44 for the script, upgrades and support, I am sure that most of you like it, but if you want to see onArcade v3.0, v4.0, v5.0 and v10.0 then that has to change. Developing onArcade takes a lot of time and money. I have not yet decided what I am going to do, but I hope to do it before v2.0 stable, here are 2 possible solutions:
a) Windows like solution. That means that you pay €44 right now and when next (full) version comes out then you have to chose between continuing with your current v2.x.x or paying upgrading fee (probably around €20 - 25) and getting v3.
b) vBulletin like solution. That means that you pay €44 right now and you get support and upgrades for 1 year, after that 1 year you would have to renew your support and upgrades package if you want to get newer version (probably around €15 per year).
Either way you could use the script on your site for as long as you wish and also everyone will get v2, only thing that would change is future upgrades. At the moment I like the first version better because it would be easier to integrate with SWREG, but I am open to all suggestions.

And I am sure that most of you would like to know when onArcade 2 final comes out... well, I still cannot give you exact date, but it won't take much longer, so you can expect it late July or in the beginning of August. I have already finished most of the things, only help database, some templates and installation/upgrading script need some more work. I hope to give exact date within a week.

Of course this would apply to new licenses only, and current license holders would receive full upgrades. If so I vote the Windows version. You get free upgrades for 1 year or only 2.x, When 3.x comes out you pay for upgrade.

I think an option such as where you purchase the script and then get free upgrades/fixes for X amount of months then you have to renew to continue getting upgrades so you can pick and choose so basically when a new version comes out you can then pay somethign like $15 for it. Ive seen many sites do this.

However i dont see too many arcade scripts doing this so i feel it could hurt gaining potential buyers of the onArcade script. I also feel that adding new features is a must when your starting to charge for upgrades as i feel if you buy a script and there are bugs with it then you would expect them to be fixed for free rather then having to pay once again for something which is still essentially the same script. Like buying something from a shop and it developing a fault you would obvisouly take it back and get it replaced free. If the script however remains essentially the same with few new features added per release i think it would once again be a waste of time and people would just use a different arcade script.

One final point is i feel the pricing structure is a bit high for the windows upgrade as you are essentially paying nearly half of what you paid for, for the script and if you have two or three sites it probably more worth your while just buying a new script and starting another site and getting more revenue. Something more along the lines of 10-15 euros like in the vB option i feel is more fair and appropriate.

dc1pop Wrote:I think an option such as where you purchase the script and then get free upgrades/fixes for X amount of months then you have to renew to continue getting upgrades so you can pick and choose so basically when a new version comes out you can then pay somethign like $15 for it. Ive seen many sites do this.

This is also an option, I called it vBulletin like solution, but the reason why I'd rather support windows like solution is because windows like solution would probably be cheaper to customers and simpler. This way you would only get support and upgrades when you have support and upgrades pack, but with Widows like solution you would get support and upgrades as long as your version is supported. So with onArcade 2 license you would receive support and upgrades for as long as onArcade 2 is the newest version and also few months after the release of onArcade 3, that would probably be 2 or maybe even more years. I am already planning features for onArcade 2.1, but that will probably come out later this year and during 2008 I am planning to release few more releases in onArcade 2 series, you probably won't see even beta of onArcade 3 before 2009.

dc1pop Wrote:However i dont see too many arcade scripts doing this so i feel it could hurt gaining potential buyers of the onArcade script.

Well, yes, there are many arcade scripts that charge nothing for upgrades, but most of them have other expensive extras like game packs and copyright removal, onArcade gives all that away for free. And now with onArcade 2 you will also get access to game feed that will probably be wasting a lot of my bandwidth when onArcade 2 becomes stable and most of the owners switch over to it. Only one time payment is nice, but if you'll be using GBs of my bandwidth and hours of my support time then I probably can't afford releasing onArcade 3 because selling one license would cost me more than customer pays for it.

dc1pop Wrote:If the script however remains essentially the same with few new features added per release i think it would once again be a waste of time and people would just use a different arcade script.

That is one more reason for choosing windows like solution, because then you would only pay for upgrades when some really big changes are made. onArcade 3 won't be just onArcade 2 with some new features, it will be totally new script, just like onArcade 1 vs onarcade 2.

dc1pop Wrote:One final point is i feel the pricing structure is a bit high for the windows upgrade as you are essentially paying nearly half of what you paid for, for the script and if you have two or three sites it probably more worth your while just buying a new script and starting another site and getting more revenue. Something more along the lines of 10-15 euros like in the vB option i feel is more fair and appropriate.

This was just an example, it will probably be between 25-50% of the full price. I will decide the final upgrading fee when onArcade 3 is finally out and it will be based on how long has the time been from last full release (onArcade 2) and what are the changes in new release (if it will be using remarkably more of my bandwidth/time/anything else, then it will be more expensive, if it has no remarkable impact on my wallet, then it will be cheaper).

I understand that no one wants to pay extra, but don't forget that you get what you pay for. onArcade cannot be the cheapest and the best arcade script at the same time.